Sylvia “Marcella” Grandcolas passed away quietly on February 25th, 2023, and is reunited with her husband, family and friends. 

Born January 30, 1933 on a farm in Chase County Kansas of parents John Augusta Malone and Sylvia Lois Frank Malone, Marcella was the youngest of four daughters.   Growing up in  Ellinwood, Kansas she was active in high school as a yell leader, flutist in the band and a drum major.  Shortly after graduation in 1951 from Ellinwood High School, she took a trip with her sisters and friends out west to the Grand Canyon and then onto Las Vegas.  This trip would create an appetite for traveling outside of Kansas, a foreshadowing of adventures to come.   Marcella would attend Adela Hale Business School in Hutchinson, Kansas that would set her on a path to working in the Kansas oil and gas industry for Lane & Wells.  She met Paul L. Grandcolas who was working as a Petroleum Engineer and would be her husband for 56 years.      

Married in 1957, Paul and Marcella eventually settled in Overland Park in 1960 where they started a family with their first child Daniel and then final son Gary.  Marcella was an active parent supporting her children's efforts as den/room mother, chauffeur, and cheerleader for their sports and activities. As her sons grew older, Marcella started working again for Macy’s and then Dillard’s, as well as working for the Johnson County Election office as a show of civic duty.  The family would frequently travel the US in week long car trips to experience their country outside of their native state of Kansas.  As part of the greatest generation, Marcella impressed upon her sons the traits of responsibility, strong work ethic, duty, love of country, kindness and humility.    

As her sons graduated high school and on to college, Paul and Marcella embarked upon traveling the world with multiple trips to Western Europe, an Asian tour of Japan, China and Hong Kong; an African Safari in Kenya, a journey on a Russian cruise ship and visit to Moscow.  In the middle East they toured the Egyptian pyramids, a visit to Israel, a journey down under to Australia and New Zealand as well as a trip to Buenos Aires and South America. 

 As Paul and Marcella got older, they changed their focus to domestic trips, local activities such as gardening, bridge, sporting events and volunteer work. St. Mary’s Food Kitchen was a charitable activity that Paul and Marcella would serve consistently. Marcella also dedicated her volunteer time with St. Joseph Hospital.

Proceeded in death, were Marcella’s parents, her sisters Mary Lois Stone, Doris Eileen Gorman, Deloris Ruth, and her husband Paul.  She is survived by son’s Daniel -Kansas City, Missouri and Gary (Meg) Leawood, Kansas and grandson David-13.   

In lieu of flowers the family asks for donations to Kansas City Hospice or to Holy Spirit Catholic Church.

Services will be on Monday, March 6th at Holy Spirit Catholic Church, 11300 West 103rd Street, Overland Park, KS 66214. Visitation from 9 a.m.-10 a.m., Funeral Mass at 10 a.m. followed by private Interment at Resurrection Catholic Cemetery at 8300 Quivira Road, Lenexa KS 66215.